Current Information:

Born-Battersea

Third Battle of Ypres

This was a campaign fought between July and November 1917 and is often referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele, a village to the north-east of Ypres which was finally captured in November. It was an attempt by the British to break out of the Ypres salient and capture the higher ground to the south and the east from which the enemy had been able to dominate the salient. It began well but two important factors weighed against them. First was the weather. The summer of 1917 turned out to be one of the wettest on record and soon the battlefield was reduced to a morass of mud which made progress very difficult, if not impossible in places. The second was the defensive arrangements of concrete blockhouses and machine gun posts providing inter-locking fire that the Germans had constructed and which were extremely difficult and costly to counter. For 4 months this epic struggle continued by the end of which the salient had been greatly expanded in size but the vital break out had not been achieved.

Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31st July-2nd August)

This was the opening attack of Third Ypres and began at 3.50am on 31st July when British and French troops launched their offensive to break out of the Ypres salient. The day had mixed results. To the north the Pilckem Ridge was captured but there was less success further south along the Gheluvelt Ridge, where a combination of stiff German resistance and low cloud which hindered observation meant that only the first objectives were captured. Further attempts to push on were stopped in their tracks by specialist German counter attack divisions and resulted in a 70% casualty rate among the British troops. Then in the afternoon, the rain came and under the weight of shells falling on it, the battlefield soon became a quagmire. Over the next two days, suffering the most appalling conditions in the mud and the rain, the troops had to fight off numerous German counter attacks.

On 31st July, 41st Division attacked astride the the Yser-Comines canal with 122 Brigade to the south of it and advanced a distance of 500-1000 yards east of Battle Wood. The 18th King’s Royal Rifle Corps and 11th Royal West Kent battalions led the attack of 122 Brigade with the 12th East Surrey battalion in support. Oblique Support Trench was soon captured but they were then held up by heavy fire coming from houses along the Hollebeke road. When this had been dealt with the two battalions pressed on again and were then checked by machine-gun fire from Hollebeke church. The fighting continued all morning but by 11.30 Hollebeke had been cleared and the ruins of the village were being consolidated. Their second objective, a German strong point at Forret Farm proved a tougher nut to crack, especially as the second wave lost direction and it was not until the evening, when 12th East Surrey moved up that it was captured. Although successful, 18th King’s Royal Rifle Corps suffered many casualties throughout the course of the day, one of them being Charles Ames.